§583. Effect of merger

A. When a portion of a ward, election district, or municipality is annexed or made a part of another ward, election district, municipality, or city-parish government, the portion annexed or made a part of shall take on the legal sales characteristics, as provided in this Chapter, of the ward, election district, municipality, or city-parish government to which it is annexed or made a part of.

B. The provisions of this Section shall be applicable to any election previously called under this Title or any other local option law and to any territory covered by such election which has subsequently been merged with another ward, election district, incorporated municipality, or portion thereof or whose boundary has been changed, it being the intention of this Chapter that the sale of beverages covered by this Title be permitted or prohibited only in an entire ward, election district, or incorporated municipality and not in any portion thereof.

C.(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsections A and B of this Section, any package house in existence and operating as such on August 15, 1995, in an area that is subsequently annexed into a ward, election district, municipality, or city-parish government that prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages shall be allowed to continue operation and shall not be subject to the provisions of Subsections A and B of this Section.

(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, any parish with a population between forty thousand and fifty thousand, based upon the latest federal decennial census, shall not be subject to the provisions of Subsections A and B of this Section and shall retain the legal sales characteristics as provided for by referendum prior to any annexation or reapportionment.

D.(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsections A and B of this Section, Ward Two, Bastrop, Morehouse Parish as described in Paragraph (2) of this Subsection that was annexed, reapportioned into, or merged into another ward, election district, municipality, or city-parish government that authorizes the sale of alcoholic beverages shall not be subject to the provisions of Subsections A and B of this Section and shall not take on the legal sales characteristics of the larger area.

(2) Ward Two, Bastrop, Morehouse Parish. From the intersection of the Louisiana-Arkansas state line with the Ouachita River run east on the Louisiana-Arkansas state line to where said line intersects Bayou Chemin-A-Haut; thence down Bayou Chemin-A-Haut to its mouth in Bayou Bartholomew; thence down Bayou Bartholomew to a point where it intersects the township line between Township 21 North and Township 22 North; thence west on said township line and being the northern boundary line of ward one to where said township line intersects the Ouachita River; thence in a northerly direction with the Ouachita River to the point of beginning.

Acts 1987, No. 696, §1; Acts 1995, No. 780, §1; Acts 1997, No. 330, §1; Acts 2006, No. 468, §1; Acts 2009, No. 233, §1; Acts 2011, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 31, §1.